The endless saga between President Donald Trump and TikTok may finally be over. In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, the US president said that TikTok already has a buyer.
“By the way, we have a buyer for TikTok,” Trump said in the interview. “I think I’m going to need probably China’s approval, and I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do that.” When asked to name the buyer, Trump only cryptically replied that it was “a group of very wealthy people” who would be announced “in about two weeks.”
TikTok’s uncertain fate began when Trump signed an executive order to extend the ban on the app in American app stores. The initial extension took place shortly after Trump took office for a second term in January, and was later postponed for another 75 days until April. In June, the decision was postponed again, this time for 90 days, with a new deadline of mid-September.
As the future of TikTok remains in a state of uncertainty, Trump said in an interview with Fox News that the extension “is not a big deal.” More than 170 million active users in the United States are awaiting a final decision on TikTok, which is developed by Beijing-based ByteDance, which is facing pressure to either sell its app or ban it due to data privacy and “national security” concerns.
